LA CENTER MIDDLE School language arts teacher Janice Broten has been named this year’s Outstanding Young Educator by the Washington State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Broten will accept her award at the Washington Educators’ Conference in Bellevue in October.
LA CENTER - A La Center Middle School teacher whose students are regularly lauded for their community fundraising endeavors is getting some statewide recognition.
The Washington State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (WSASCD) has named Janice Broten, an English Language Arts and Leadership teacher at La Center Middle School, as this year’s Outstanding Young Educator.
“The Outstanding Young Educator Award is intended to recognize an educator who achieves excellence in instructional leadership in teaching and learning,” explained WSASCD’s executive director, Kathy Clayton.
Broten will accept the award at the Washington Educators’ Conference in Bellevue in October.
“It’s a blessing to receive this award for doing something I really truly love,” Broten said. “But, really, my students are the ones doing the work … I’m there to guide and support them, but they’re the ones making the mistakes and learning from their mistakes and doing the work.”
Broten, who just finished her 14th year as a teacher, says she always wanted to help others, but didn’t gravitate toward education right away.
“In elementary school – I went to school in Vancouver – I was always helping others, helping younger students as a tutor and I loved it,” Broten said. “But, honestly, I thought I’d be a nurse!”
In fact, if you’d told Broten during her middle school years that she’d return to teach those very grades, she probably would have thought you were crazy.
“Middle school was a tough time for me,” Broten said.
When she realized, in high school, that she wanted to become a teacher, Broten initially set her sights on teaching younger, elementary school students.
“I student-taught a fifth-grade class, and I subbed for a few months in a kindergarten, first-grade class,” Broten said. “That was so tough! I applied for other positions and got an interview for a sixth grade class … I thought, ‘hmmm, middle school?’ but I loved it. Now I can’t imagine being anywhere else. I’ve taught sixth, seventh and eighth grades and I really love the challenge of teaching eighth-graders, the depth you can get into with kids that age really appeals to me.”
Currently, Broten teaches English Language Arts to seventh and eighth grade students, as well as a leadership class for highly motivated students at La Center Middle School.
Last school year, Broten joined a select group of Washington State teachers who have earned their National Board Certification, the gold-standard in educator certification. Her commitment to continuing her own education, as well as the successes she’s had inside the classroom, helped earn her the 2015 Outstanding Young Educator Award.
“Janice empowers students’ every day at La Center Middle School,” Clayton, director of the Washington State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, said in a press release. “In her ELA classes, she creates a learning environment where all kids feel successful and are willing to take on any challenge that awaits them. She does this by having high expectations for all students and creating a caring, collaborative learning environment where all kids support each other and their learning.”
The press release pointed out that, over the past two years, Broten’s students have had high test scores, including a passing rate on state testing for reading and writing that was in the top 10 percentile amongst Washington State middle school students.
Broten’s Leadership students have led successful fundraising efforts throughout the past few years, including a Stuff the Bus Canned Food Drive, which collected more than 13,000 pounds of food for local food banks, and 10 years’ worth of fundraisers for the Portland-based Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, which have raised nearly $50,000.
The Outstanding Young Educator Award is not Broten’s first brush with statewide recognition. In fact, in 2014, the La Center Middle School teacher won the Association of Washington Middle Level Principals’ State Middle School Advisor of the Year award.
When she’s not teaching, coaching her middle school’s cross-country and track teams, or taking students to summertime mid-level leadership conferences, Broten can be found at home with her family, which includes her husband, two daughters, ages 12 and 9, a twin sister and five nieces.
“Family is really important to me,” Broten said. “So I’m always trying to find that balance between my career, my family and myself.”
